The St. James High football team gave help to an opponent that didn’t need any.

And the result was a blowout loss for the Tigers in their Four Rivers Conference opener.

Three St. James turnovers didn’t help the cause, as the Sullivan Eagles rolled up more than 500 yards in total offense to knock off the Tigers 41-0 Friday, Sept. 11 at Sullivan High School.

Both teams are now 2-1 overall.

Sullivan went to the air - which it does rarely - for its first two touchdowns on its way to a 20-0 first-quarter lead. Senior wideout Brennan Koepke caught TD tosses of 62 and 32 yards from sophomore quarterback Blake Tolliver. The second touchdown pass came after STJ lost a fumble.

The third TD came on a breakaway run, as senior running back Brian Stone reeled off a 58-yard TD run with 4:15 left in the opening period.

The Tigers were threatening to start the second quarter after a Sullivan roughing the passer penalty and a 13-yard run by St. James senior quarterback Owen Spurgeon got the ball to the Eagle 15 yardline. However, St. James fumbled again and Sullivan’s Brodyn Huebner recovered, killing the drive.

After senior running back Braxton Breen broke off a 63-yard run, he would score a TD three plays later on a two-yard plunge.

It was 27-0 at intermission.

Sullivan would score on the first offensive possession of the second half, as junior fullback Nathan Garcia spun into the open and sprinted 45 yards for the touchdown.

After a Tiger three-and-out, Sullivan’s Jaxson Blankenship blocked a punt attempt and recovered the ball in the endzone for the game’s final TD at the 9:19 mark of the third quarter, putting the turbo clock in order.

Sullivan finished with 503 yards of total offense compared to 54 for St. James. Three Eagles rushed for 92 or more yards - Breen 164, Stone 105 and Garcia 92. Tolliver was 2-for-3 passing for 93 yards.

This week St. James was to host St. Clair Friday, Sept. 18. Kickoff for the conference game is 7 p.m. at Tiger Field. St. Clair enters the game 2-1 overall after clipping Pacific 35-28 last week in its FRC opener.

The box score:

Sullivan 41, STJ 0

Team Statistics

First Downs: STJ 5, Sull 15

Yards Rushing: STJ 25, Sull 410

Yards Passing: STJ 29, Sull 93

Total Yards: STJ 54, Sull 503

Passing: STJ 4-4, Sull 2-3

Int. Thrown: STJ 0, Sull 0

Fumbles Lost: STJ 3, Sull 0

Penalties: STJ 4-20, Sull 12-116

Punting: STJ 3-33.0, Sull None

The score by periods:

St. James       0   0      0   0- 0

Sullivan       20   7    14   0-41

The scoring plays:

Sullivan: Koepke 61-yard pass from Tolliver, conversion fails (9:35).

Sullivan: Koepke 32-yard pass from Tolliver, conversion fails (7:33).

Sullivan: Stone 58-yard run, Tolliver runs in conversion (4:15).

Sullivan: Breen two-yard run, Tanner kick (8:31).

Sullivan: Garcia 45-yard run, Tanner kick (11:11).

Sullivan: Blankenship recovers blocked punt in endzone, Tanner kick (9:19).

Individual Statistics

Rushing – St. James: Spurgeon 6 for minus-8, Holt 5 for 6, Lonning 2 for 5, Nicholson 3 for 12, King 2 for 2, Cantrell 1 for 8, Otto 1 for minus-2, Inman 1 for 1. Sullivan: Breen 12 for 164, Garcia 9 for 92, Stone 7 for 105, Koepke 1 for 4, Rennick 2 for 13, Tolliver 2 for 4, Douglas 1 for 4, Bayless 1 for 4, Alu 2 for 9, Westbrook 1 for 11.

Passing – St. James: Spurgeon 4-4-29-0. Sullivan: Tolliver 2-3-93-0.

Receiving – St. James: Lonning 2 for 19, O. Jackson 2 for 10. Sullivan: Koepke 2 for 93.

Sept. 4 at St. James

STJ 30, Cuba 24: The Tigers were able to grab a big enough lead to overcome the coming-out party by Cuba sophomore running back Carter Medows. After building a 30-12 advantage heading into the fourth quarter, the Tigers had to hold on to post a 30-24 victory over their Crawford County neighbor Friday, Sept. 4 at Tiger Field.

Medows, who played baseball but not football as a freshman, made his impression on the Tigers Sept. 4, erupting for 262 rushing yards on 13 carries and scored three touchdowns in breakaway fashion.

“Any win is a good win,” said Tiger head coach Dusty Craft. “Obviously, we didn’t finish the way we want to finish; we were lucky to win. Cuba played great, battled and made it tough on us.

“(Medows) coming in, we knew he was good. We didn’t put quite as much focus on him as we did (senior running back Ethan Noltkamper), though.”

The two teams swapped touchdowns over the first half. Medows struck first, going untouched around right end for a 26-yard TD run at the 8:10 mark of the opening period. The PAT attempt failed. St. James came right back, with senior running back John Nicholson scoring on a 20-yard run. With St. James kicker Preston Hash currently out with injury, the Tigers went for the two-point conversion and failed.

Cuba regained the advantage when Medows got loose down the right sidelines for a 62-yard scoring run. He then attempted to run in the conversion but came up short.

St. James took the lead at the 7:28 mark of the second quarter on a one-yard TD keeper by Spurgeon, followed by Nicholson’s two-point conversion run, making it 14-12 at halftime.

It appeared St. James was ready to pull away in the third period, scoring back-to-back touchdowns, the first on a 41-yard breakaway by Nicholson down the left sidelines. Junior Patrick Lonning ran in the conversion.

And after St. James senior Owen Jackson picked off a Wildcat pass, the Tigers would go 48 yards on seven plays, capped by a three-run TD run by Spurgeon. Spurgeon then hit senior wideout Ryder Hanneken with the conversion pass to build a 30-12 cushion.

But back came Cuba in the final period. After Medows broke off a reverse for 64 yards, sophomore Nicholas Gipson scored the TD on a 10-yard run with 10:08 left. The Wildcats fumbled the conversion run.

After St. James was forced to punt, Medows took a handoff on the first play from scrimmage, got to the right sidelines, and sprinted 90 yards for the TD. The conversion run failed, and the Wildcats trailed 30-24 with 7:24 remaining.

And on the ensuing kickoff St. James fumbled the squib kick, and Cuba’s Seth Adderley recovered at the Tiger 45 yardline.

However, the St. James defense would stiffen the rest of the way, keeping the Wildcats out of the endzone.

After Cuba was forced to punt, St. James put together a six-play drive to cut the game clock to 1:31 before punting, and Tiger punter Jaden Otto’s boot pinned Cuba back to its own 10 yardline. The Wildcats couldn’t move past the 12 yardline and ended up failing on a 4th-and-eight situation, allowing St. James to run out the clock.

On that final Cuba drive, Wildcat sophomore Billie Thompson went down with an injury. The game was stopped for around 30 minutes while Thompson was put on a board and carried to an ambulance, where he was transported to a hospital.

According to Cuba school officials, Thompson was up walking the following day, although he had additional treatments he was to undergo.

St. James had 242 yards of total offense - 201 rushing, which was able to offset three turnovers and eight penalties for 60 yards. Led by Medows, Cuba had 322 yards of total offense.

Nicholson paced St. James with 75 rushing yards on seven carries.

The box score:

STJ 30, Cuba 24

Team Statistics

First Downs: STJ 12, CHS 8

Yards Rushing: STJ 201, CHS 322

Yards Passing: STJ 41, CHS 0

Total Yards: STJ 242, CHS 322

Passing: STJ 1-7, CHS 0-3

Int. Thrown: STJ 0, CHS 1

Fumbles Lost: STJ 3, CHS 0

Penalties: STJ 8-60, CHS 5-40

Punting: STJ 4-33.0, CHS 3-27.3

The score by periods:

Cuba   6  6    0  12-24

STJ     6  8  16    0-30

The scoring plays:

Cuba: Medows 26-yard run, kick fails (8:10).

St. James: Nicholson 20-yard run, conversion fails (3:30).

Cuba: Medows 62-yard run, conversion fails (8:46).

St. James: Spurgeon one-yard run, Nicholson runs in conversion (7:28).

St. James: Nicholson 41-yard run, Lonning runs in conversion (9:41).

St. James: Spurgeon three-yard run, Spurgeon passes to Hanneken for conversion (5:01).

Cuba: Gipson 10-yard run, conversion fails (10:08).

Cuba: Medows 90-yard run, conversion fails (7:24).

Individual Statistics

Rushing - St. James: Spurgeon 14 for 13, Holt 4 for 27, Nicholson 7 for 75, King 6 for 44, Lonning 8 for 43, TEAM 1 for minus-1. Cuba: Gipson 7 for 65, Noltkamper 13 for 10, Medows 13 for 262, Shireman 5 for minus-13, Flores 1 for 2, TEAM 3 for minus-4.

Passing - St. James: Spurgeon 1-7-41-0. Cuba: Shireman 0-3-0-1.

Receiving - St. James: Lonning 1 for 41. Cuba: None.